Letter #184 from Russia

Letter #184 comes from Maria (or Masha) in Russia.Maria lives in Arkhangelsk,a little town in the north of Russia.She is currently studying at the university.She hopes to have a career in forest engineering.She lives with her mom,whom she says "is the best mom in the world!".She also has a brother that is five years older than her.

She also has a cat named Chernish,which means "black".She also says that he is a very fat cat. :)

Maria loves people and says that it is better to have a few true friends than many pals that are not as close.She also gave us some advice and told us that we should try to do many different things to see what is interesting and important to ourselves.I definitely agree with that advice,too often we find ourselves miserable in life because we are doing what we thought would make others happy without thinking how it would affect us,the one who is actually doing it.We should go out and learn as much as we can to see what we truly like,you may find yourself interested in something you never thought you would like.She also told us that we should always believe in ourselves and not to dwell on things that don't go as planned....it's all a learning experience.

Thanks Maria for your wonderful letter with cute stamps and drawings,stickers,postcard,and movie cards,and also a cute recipe for carrot cake (one of my fave cakes!) ,which can be seen below:

Letter #183 from Canada

Letter #183 comes from Jane in Canada.She lives in a small town in Northern Ontario,called Kapuskasing,which comes from the Cree Indian language,which means "bend in the river". The town was founded in 1911 and they will be having special celebrations this summer for their 90th anniversary.

The land in her area is flat with lots of trees,mostly black spruce trees,along with several lakes.The winters are long and cold,with January and Febraury being the coldest months,with temperatures around -40°F! I had to look twice to make sure that was right because that is cold!I remember a few winters ago the wind chill in Michigan was -32°F and it was terrible,your eyelashes would freeze and even the tears in your eyes would freeze.....it was absolutely terrible!She has noticed a change though during the past winter,with no wind chills and more clear and sunny days.

She says they are now starting to see signs of spring,green grass,buds about to come out on trees.Their summers are quite pleasant with temperatures in the 70°-80° F range,with the occasional 90° temps,but very rarely.She says that her town is beautiful in the summer months.Many people fill their yards with flowers and keep their lawns green and beautiful.

Jane has seen many ravens this past winter season and didn't realize just how big they were and thinks they are so beautiful!Many different animals can be found in her area,including black bears,foxes and moose

In the early days of her town,lumberjacking was big business.There is currently a large paper mill there which produces pulp for newsprint.Since 1928,The New York Times  has been printed on the paper produced there.The lumber business has decreased dramatically and the work force at the mill is much smaller.

She says that like most small towns everywhere,her city has lost businesses and population.At one time, there were 13,000 people in her city,now they have 7,500.Another one of their major employers in her town also announced that they will be shutting the business down in 2013.It's so sad to see so many businesses close and people lose their jobs.

Jane says that most people in her area speak French as their first language,but most are bilingual.When they realize you don't speak French,then they start speaking English.

She also noted that General Motors Canada has their cold weather development center there to test their vehicles in cold weather conditions.She says they have a race track where they drive on and that they also drive the cars on the highways to see how they work under normal conditions.We had the same thing in Michigan.

During the summer,they have an annual event called the Lumberjack Festival,celebrating the early days of the area.There are demonstrations and competitions involving lumberjack tasks.For example,there are contests for sawing logs with chainsaws and also with hand saws...it reminds me of the show called "Frontier House" where they had the same type of competition. :)

Jane and her husband live two hours from the next largest city and ten hours away from Toronto.They have both lived in the area for one year now.Jane grew up in South Dakota.They moved there for her husband's job.

She also says that the money looks different than US money,but is otherwise the same.There are no $1 bills,but a $1 coin called a "loonie" since there is a loon bird on it.There is also a $2 coin called a "toonie".The downside about living in Canada is that there is a 15% tax on everything,even postage stamps.She also said that if she orders something from the US,she has to pay the 15% tax upon delivery.Some packages are even opened and taped back shut by customs.

She says that it isn't really different living there,items in the stores are labled in both English and French,as well as most signs and ads.The people there are very friendly and proud to be Canadians.She also said that they eat their fries with gravy (I recall the letter from Terri in Oklahoma sharing a picture of it),but Jane still loves her fries and ketchup. :) They also put spaghetti sauce and mozzerella cheese over their fries,but she has not tried those yet,either.

Thanks so much Jane for your lovely letter and postcards,which can be seen below:

Letter #182 from Denmark

Letter #182 comes from Marie in Denmark...this is our first letter from Denmark!Marie comes from the second largest city called Aarhus.She lives with her fiancee that builds robots and other things that are being sent into orbit into outer space,which she thinks is very cool! (We agree!) Marie is currently a student,studying communications.She dreams about helping organizations find ways to improve work environments.As she said,she wants all mommy's and daddy's to have fun while at work.I think that is a great idea since nobody wants to feel terrible at work and come home in a bad mood.

On the front of one of the papers she wrote on is a picture of Tivoli,one of the world's oldest amusement parks in the world!It is located in the capital of Denmark,which is Copenhagen.She said that Denmark is usually hard to find on a map because it is so small,so she drew a picture for us.She says there are a lot of small islands around the bigger ones,which are all a part of Denmark.She says there is an island called Bornholm where the citizens speak a language closer to Swedish than Danish.

On the front of the other paper she wrote us on is a picture of "The Little Mermaid" statue,which is a story written by Hans Christian Anderson,who is a famous Danish author.I did not know that he wrote "The Little Mermaid",we only know that it's a Disney movie and didn't even think about who the author was.She said the statue is in the harbor,just like the Statue of Liberty is in the harbor in New York.

Marie also shared some Danish words/sentences with us below:

Thank you - Tak
I love letters - Jeg elsker breve
Where do you live? - Hvor bor du?
What's your name? - Hvad hedder du?
How are you? - Hvordan gar det?

Thanks Marie for your lovely letter,which can be seen below:

Letter #181 from Finland

Letter #181 comes from Hilja in Finland.Hilja lives in a small town in Eastern Finland.She just moved there due to her new job being located there.Her first day of work is May 16th...I hope she had a great first day at work!She will be working as a customer advisor.Hilja loves customer service and being in touch with different people.

Before moving,she lived in a city called Joensuu,where she studied Finnish language and literature at the University of Eastern Finland.She says that since then she's been wondering what she'd like to do in her life,but not sure she will ever find the answer to that.Sometimes it just takes time to find what you really like...just follow your heart and it will lead you the right way.

Hilja has many hobbies.She joined postcrossing in 2006 and has already received thousands of postcards and like us,enjoys opening the mailbox to find something other than bills. :) She compared postcrossing to the movie "Forest Gump",when he says,"life is like a box of chocolates,you never know what you are going to get",that's the way she feels about the postcards,you never know where they are coming from or what they will look like,so that is the exciting part,of course.

She also enjoys reading and classifies herself as a real bookworm and usually reads two or three books at the same time.She reads books in English,Finnish and Swedish.She enjoys all types of literature,from children's books to postmodern novels.She just finished reading a book called "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" and highly recommends it.

Hilja also loves watching sports on tv as much as possible.When she wrote the letter,there was a championship game going on for ice hockey.She also loves to go jogging and running and tries to excercise several times a week.One of her favorite things to do is enjoy nature and take hikes in the woods.She says that the nature in her area is very beautiful and that you can get very close to wild animalsShe once found some tracks in the snow and she didn't know which animal made them,so she showed her father the picture and he told her they were bear tracks!

She has also recently been to a city called Koli and thinks it is one of the most beautiful places in Finland.

Hilja also noted that the Winnie the Pooh stationery she wrote on was chosen because she loves the character and because she loves the fall season.

Thanks Hilja for your lovely letter,postcards and brochures,which can be seen below:

Updating...

Hello everybody!
Just wanted to update everybody and let you all know that letter posting will be updated in a few days due to my brother in law moving in with us and my back in a lot of pain from a very painful pulled muscle.I have 3 or 4 letters to post when I am better.Sign ups and letters have really slowed down lately,but we are well on our way to 200 letters,which is very exciting!It has been so exciting learning about everybody and their homeland.There are many countries we haven't gotten letters from and would love to learn about.If you are reading this and haven't sent us a letter,please consider writing to us.It doesn't matter if we got a letter from your country/state already,we will accept more than one letter from the same area.We have truly enjoyed every letter we have gotten and it's been fun seeing how creative people can be with their letters.It has given us some great ideas of how to incorporate some craftiness into our penpal letters.As always,we thank everybody that has posted our project on their blog,facebook,etc.We are almost halfway through the year and have many more letters to go before reaching our goal,but we know there are many people out there that enjoy letter writing or would at least do so to help us reach our goal,so if you know someone that may be interested,please send them our way.We would be really appreciative!Maybe you would like to share your vacation with us or maybe tell us what your dream vacation would be,whatever you would like to share,we'd love to read about it!Well,gotta go now so I can try to get some relief.Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Letter #176 from The Netherlands

Letter #176 comes from Roxanne (or as her friends call her Roxxy) in The Netherlands.She was born in Utrecht and is currently a student.She describes herself as both a book worm and a music junkie.She loves books and carries her ipod around everywhere.She also is a writer and singer.She has been taking singing classes since 2009 and still wants to learn more.She also enjoys watching soccer,shopping,hanging out with friends,dancing,watching tv,swimming,travelling,postcrossing,and much more!

Roxanne says she is not a very picky eater,but does not like olives and a few herbs,other than that,she is pretty open to a variety of foods.She loves rice,pasta,risotto rice and chicken the most because you can always change the flavors and make a different kind of meal using just those ingredients.

She also said that spring has been really nice so far this year.It has been much warmer compared to previous years.She loves the warm weather since she can go swimming at the lake and have picnics at the park.The sunshine makes her so happy and gives her energy.

Roxanne is attending university for Communication Management.She says that at one point,she wasn't even sure what she wanted to do,so she took a break for two years until she realized that she could do what she really wanted,after all.She says she would love to be a singer,but not a famous one (hmm,maybe she could be like Milli Vanilli,if anybody remembers them....they turned out to be lip syncing...ok,just joking,but I guess if you really wanted your voice to be heard,but not be seen,it could be an option). :) Anyways,back to the letter,she thinks it would be really nice to work with musicians and since she's very skilled in organizing,she's thinking she may be a perfect fit for being an event manager.She also has a passion for creative writing and would like to be a freelance writer.....maybe she could write about the music events she plans. :) She really would be happy to have a job that consists of her three loves- music,organizing and writing.The only job she doesn't want is one where she has to sit at a desk in an office.

She is currently working at an old ship dock as a trainee,where they repair ships that were used for river transport.She says that they currently function as a museum but that they still have the ability to repair ships that are over 50 years old.She also says that there is a small harbor with many historical ships and that it's reallt beautiful,with a rich history.Her current job involves public relations,communications and advertising.She has really learned a lot through this internship.

She said that the city she was born and lives in (Utrecht),is a big city and that there is always something to see and do and she loves that she can go shopping every day.She doesn't like silence,so she doesn't think she could survive living in a small town.

She also shared a couple of facts about her country that we may not have learned about from previous letters.The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy.The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague.As of January 2010,the Netherlands had 16,574,989 inhabitants.The Netherlands is often referred to as Holland,although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces.The word "dutch" is used to refer to the people,the language,and anything pertaining to the Netherlands.Geographically,the Netherlands is a low-lying country,with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level.Most of the country is very flat,with the exception of foothills in the far southeast and several low-hill ranges in the central part.

When she wrote us the letter,it was a special day in the Netherlands,they were celebrating Queens Day (April 30).Their former queen was born on April 30 so it became a national holiday.Every year the royal family visits one of the cities or towns in the country and they show it on tv.They also have flea markets,music everywhere,people can buy drinks and food on the streets and almost everyone is dressed in orange.Since most people really love to party,they have invented Queens Night,which starts on the 29th of April.So,for about 24 hours,there is orange madness going on in the country.She says that the color orange is not on their national flag,but it is part of the last name of their queen,therefore,orange is their national color.So you will usually see people wearing orange during sporting events or national holidays to show that they are Dutch.

She also told us about some other holidays.On May 4 (which happens to be my favorite day b/c it's my birthday) it's a sad day where they remember the casualties of World War II.But then the next day,on May 5th,there's Liberation Day,which is Roxanne's favorite holiday.All around the country,people organize big events and festivals with music and much more.You can sit in the park with friends and listen to the bands play on the stage.She said that the best part is that there's free admission. :)

Along with her lovely letter,Roxanne included some printouts with pictures of herself,her boyfriend,the place she currently works at,her family,boyfriend,their pets and of course,a map showing her country and city.She also enclosed some postcards,some mini flags,and a Dutch wooden shoe keychain.Thanks so much Roxanne for the letter and goodies,which can be seen below:

Letter #175 from Massachusetts

Letter #175 comes from Emilie in Massachusetts.Emilie is currently studying French at college and is working towards her masters degree.She says it's a lot of hard work,but it's fun,too.She gets to teach two classes of elementary French at her college,which must be really exciting and hard work at the same time.

She says that she can't wait for summer vacation so that she will have more free time to explore Boston since she is not originally from there.She told us that the Public Gardens there are really beautiful.We love nature,so we would love to see the gardens there.It was also the setting for a children's book called "Make Way for Ducklings".When she moved to Boston,she was really excited to see the statue of the baby ducklings following their mother.She also told us that Boston has the best ice cream.She has tried some unique flavors,with black raspberry and blueberry cheesecake being her favorites.

Emilie grew up in Maryland,only 15 minutes from the Virginia border.She lived 40 minutes away from the Del Marva peninsula,where the famous Chincoteague ponies are from and she still loves to read the books by Marguerite Henry about the Chincoteague ponies.I believe my daughter used to read those books when she was younger and was going through her "pony" phase.Emilie used to have her own pony named Windsong,so that is why she is so fond of horses,but,unfortunately,she died three years ago.She said that her dad had bought a mule to keep her horse company since horses are herd animals and need companions to be happy.She said that mules are a hybrid of two species,they have a horse mother and a donkey father.She says they are very sweet and extremely intelligent animals.They look like horses,but have bigger ears.She said that they love to have the insides of their ears rubbed,but once you take your finger out,it's all covered with ear wax....hopefully you weren't eating when you read that part. ;)

She really misses home a lot since she lived in the country,where it was so green in the woods.She still dreams about home and misses the log cabin she grew up in.Even though Boston in her new home,she is still a country girl at heart. :)

Thanks Emilie for your very sweet letter,we hope you have continued success on your goal to get your masters degree!You can see her lovely letter below:

Letters #177-180

Letters #177-180 come from a homeschooling family in Idaho.The first letter was from Kathy (the mother of the family).Kathy is married with three children.Her oldest child is in public school,but the other two are homeschooled.She wishes she didn't agree to public school for her oldest because of all the drama that goes  on in public school. ( I definitely know what she's talking about) So she will continue to homeschool the other two children to give them a better education.She requested her youngest two write letters for our project as part of their writing assignment,so I will now be sharing what they wrote.

Megan is in first grade and was told about our project by her father,who has also written to us.She also said that it was fun writing us a letter.

Next,was a letter from Jessica.Jessica is in the second grade.Her favorite subject is math and she loves to sing.She is quite happy because they have two more months of school before they get their summer break. (My girls were quite jealous since we homeschool year round.) ;) She also said that it was fun writing to us.

Last,but not least, was the letter from E.J. (the father of the family).He told us that he found out about our project through a website called the Fountain Pen Network,which another writer so graciously mentioned on there.He wrote to us using a fountain pen on a type of paper that used to be called Air Mail paper,but is now known as onion skin paper,it feels pretty cool.We really loved this paper.

E.J. really loves the old ways of writing.He prefers typewriters,fountain pens and pencils.I couldn't agree more.I have a small collection of typewriters myself,but they need some work done on them,unfortunately,so we haven't been able to use them lately. :( When they worked,my daughters loved using them.It just seems so much more fun typing a story on a typewriter than typing a story on the computer....I can't explain it.E.J. also agrees and found out that many writers have gone back to typing their stories on typewriters.He has actually completed typing a story up within one year on his typewriter and is now trying to find a publisher....maybe someone here can help him out?Maybe we can get the first printed copy...wink,wink. :)

He also told us that there are thousands of fountain pens available with ink in a rainbow of colors to choose from.Some of them wash out very easily with water and some can never be washed out.The second page of the letter was typed on his favorite typewriter,a Royal KMM.....I will have to check ours out because I think we may have the same kind.He says it's from 1949.Unfortunately when ours was shipped to us,it was damaged,so we never got to use ours. :( The typewriter was given to him by its original owner,who is now 90 years old.She was a secretary for a company that sold ant farms that were really popular years ago and was advertised in the back of comic books.Sounds like such a great story to keep with the typewriter!He reminded us all of how this typewriter was made to withstand being typed on 8 hours a day,5 days a week and that every single thing had to be typed out.He also reminded us about how accurate typists had to be because there are no delete or backspace buttons on typewriters. :)

He also told us that he told his friend in Australia about our project,so we hope we hear from his friend soon. :)

Thanks so much to E.J.,Kathy,Jessica, and Megan for all of your lovely letters,which can be seen below: